Vladana Vucinic has music in her blood as her grandfather was a prominent music manager. Her own musical education includes that of music theory and opera singing. Although she studied for a degree in journalism she also balanced that with a music career. She has tried to participated at Eurovision a few times - taking part in Montevizija 2005 as a solo artist then again in 2006 as part of in a duet with Bojana Nenezić. Later that year, she performed at the newcomers section of the music festival Sunčane Skale. Her first few releases were in Montenegrin but leading into the 2010s her work was starting to be performed in English.
The song begins rather quietly with the piano as the main instrument. The first verse almost feels acapella before the volume of the piano increases for the pre chorus, chorus and post chorus. As verse two starts the backing track is now much more full and ends up being a bit of a a sudden wake up call. This change of gear continues through the pre-chorus and chorus but the song now feels very different;. her voice is much stronger and she is not quite singing the same melodies as before. After a short break she reprises part of the chorus again as the instrumentation dies down again. A short bridge helps the song build up one more time before another half rendition of the chorus.
First of all the music video is very well shot - I feel like the people at "Visit Montenegro" will love this. It is dramatic and uses some clever lighting and slow motion effects. The addition of the ballet dancer is very clever when it comes to telling the story and I could see someone fulfilling this role on stage with her. Vladana is a great actress and has a very expressive face which really works in this video. Vladana also has a very stylised, if not severe, look throughout. Although I very much approve of some of the sartorial choices (in particular some of the amazing jewellery and headpieces) her make up slightly detracts from the overall package. What also detracts from the song, unfortunately, are the lyrics. It's not that they are written in bad English or even basic English, the lines sound clunky like they have used a thesaurus to try and and find suitable words that fit the phrasing. I appreciate the links to the recent covid crisis and global warming but the wording diminishes its powerful message. "Breathe" is not the only ballad in the bottom half of semi 2 and it is certainly not the best. Unless this has a memorable staging AND she can pull this off live I fear this will be memory holed. This is not bad, it's just not great.
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